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Xocolatl de David ~ Bacon + Chocolate = <3

 

 

**Archived Notes

 

The bacon revolution continues. I for one, am not standing in the way. Where once I foolishly thought the bacon craze in general was going overboard, I never turned my back on the bacon and chocolate craze. Bacon and dark Ecuador cacao with a caramel center. Can't go wrong with that.

Similar to the Raleigh Bars, this is a similar theme from Xocolatl de David whom often works with bacon in his confections. Bacon and caramel in a slender bar/tablet form. Only without the nougat like the Raleigh bars.

 

 

Bacon & Caramel Bar

 

Type: Filled candy bar, 72% dark chocolate.

Bean Varietal: Nacional

Ingredients: 72% cacao (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla), sugar, cream, bacon, invert sugar, fleur de sel.

Sample Size: 2.2oz or 62g

 

Right away you can notice from the pictures it's sloppy appearance. A side effect from the salt and the caramel bulging the chocolate. I had a hard time capturing the bulging, but you can sort of make it out in the last picture above. It leaves for a hot mess in the appearance. Ashy, white, streaking, and the shine has gone off the bar.

All that aside, it smells fantastic. Like salt cure, smoky bacon, and sweet buttery caramel with earthy, fruity dark chocolate. Wonderful aroma. If they could make reed diffusers in this scent, it would be a best seller.

Sweet, and tangy bitter on the taste from the rich bitter dark chocolate, then buttery caramel with salty cripsy bacon. While the taste is full on with the bacon, I do wish it had bigger bacon pieces in it. It's the plight of my blog to demand chocolate makers to stop being skimpy with the bacon. It's bacon, you can never have TOO much in one bar. But more than that, it has the taste, but if needs the meaty back bone to make you feel like you just chewed on a fatty piece of bacon covered in chocolate and caramel. Because as rich and delectable as this is, large greasy, fatty bacon pieces would set this bar apart from any other bacon bar on the market.

I love the Ecuador chocolate they use on their products. It's rich, fruity, and bitter, and with the caramel and smoky bacon, it brings out a nutty richness to the chocolate with slight brewed coffee notes. Nice combination of flavors. It's very bitter too and that helps round out the sugars and sweetness on the bar.

A real decadent and fantastic bar. The salt makes it that much more addicting too. I am giving this bar a higher score based solely on how it tastes. It's very balanced. Savory, salty, buttery, sweet, rich, and deeply chocolaty and bitter. It's appearance is a side effect from the gooey caramel. It's really bad on this particular bar. But knowing exactly what this bar is and how it tastes shouldn't detract from making this a regular treat or gift for a true bacon lover. It's that good.

 

   score
    A

Mast Brothers ~ La Red de Guaconejo 74%

 

 

**Archived Notes

 

Organic Dominican Republic beans sourced from La Red de Guaconejo cooperative in the northern tropical part of the country.

 

 

La Red de Guaconejo 74%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 74%

Bean Varietal: Hispanola (Forastero/Criollo blend)

Ingredients: Cacao and cane sugar.

Sample Size: 2.5 oz

Batch #: 11091211

 

Appearance: Dark brown color, non-monogrammed molding, slightly dry looking, but not ashy, slight scuff marks on the top surface, shiny top surface, minor air bubbles on the back surface.

Score: 89

Snap: Mild snap, slightly firm with lightly crisp snap sound. Crumbly break lines.

Score: 90

Aroma: Soft aroma of bright acidic red cherries, pipe tobacco, and soft wood.

Score: 93

Taste: Deeply bitter, inky, sour and acidic, slight medicinal notes, earthy, cherries, pipe tobacco, buttery toast, soft wood, lingering bitterness.

Score: 84

Texture: Smooth, medium melt-time, creamy and a little chalky.

Score: 92

 

This was okay chocolate. Good but far from great. Though there are some flaws in it, I didn't seem to mind them as much for this bar. It has notes that I am usually not that fond of, but in this case, they work well on this bar. The medicinal notes worked. The acidity would have been fine along with the bright cherry flavors but it's the bitterness that left his bar unbalanced. So much bitterness it overtakes the whole bar.

Toast and jam. Those were the best flavors on this bar. I tried to not to be influenced by the package description indicating notes of pipe tobacco and cherries, but that is exactly what is all over this bar. Aroma and taste. It has good earthy medicinal tastes along with ink upfront and then bright cherries, toast, and tobacco. But the flavors were disjointed by the acidity and bitterness. It's almost like a dual bar. It really detracts from some of the richness in the flavors. You have to really burrough through bitterness before the lovely cherry, toast, and tobacco flavors come through. And then your palate is left with more lingering bitterness. If it were tamed a bit more, this would be lovely chocolate.

 

Final Score: 89.6

   score
  B+

Whole Foods Organic ~ Tanzania 72% Dark Chocolate

 

 

Organic and fair trade single origin beans from Tanzania made into chocolate bars from Whole Foods and processed in Belgium, to benefit the Tanzania Schoolhouse Project. A portion of the proceeds benefit the education of children in the Kyela District of Tanzania.

 

[Image via Hai Tanzania]

 

 

 

Tanzania Schoolhouse Project 72%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 72%

Bean Varietal: Probably Forastero

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, cane sugar, cocoa butter. All organic.

Sample Size: 3.5 oz

 

Appearance: Smooth, non-monogrammed molding, but signature molded tablet, medium brown color, near blemish free bar on the surface, some very mild streaking on the back of the bar with some small air bubbles.

Score: 94

Snap: Firm snap with a lightly crisp snapping sound, clean break lines.

Score: 91

Aroma: Big bold aroma of roasted peanuts, big fruit and berries and ink.

Score: 92

Taste: Flowery and inky up front, deeply bitter, roasted cacao, toast, earthy, subdued fruits, roasted and nutty, slightly smoky lingering tastes on the finish.

Score: 93

Texture: Smooth, medium-slow melt time, Not silky smooth or chalky, but some where in between on it's texture.

Score: 91

 

Very nice bar. Great appearance. Virtually blemish free and that's awesome for a bar picked up at a grocery store. Nice molding good thickness on the bar, and even though it has overly large tablets, it's not too thick to bite into which has been an issue on other bars with large, fat tabs.

The aroma was nice and full. Big fruits and roasted peanuts. Some people like really deeply complicated aromas. I find it awesome when I can find layer upon layer in an aroma, but there is something to be said about a simple straight forward aroma too. Nothing too complicated. It is what it is.

The flavors are fairly straight forward as well. I don't want to say it's simple, but there wasn't a whole lot of nuance on this bar. Deeply bitter with lots of lingering bitterness. But sweet and floral up front and again big roasted cacao flavors and nuts. Some biscuit and toast flavors a little earthy and fruity.

This is really great eating chocolate. No thinking, no need to get too complicated about it. Store this in your desk at work for chocolate intermezzos, break this open and devour it quickly, melt it down for hot chocolate, chop it up and bake with it. I don't want to sound flippant about it, but it's very good chocolate for only $2.99. You can buy a ton of it to use for whatever and you are doing some good with it by buying it for it's charity purposes.

 

Final Score: 92.2

   score
  B+